This year’s Copa Libertadores Femenina, the principal women’s football club tournament in South America, ended with mixed emotions on Saturday. Corinthians went through the finals undefeated and secured their fifth title at the Estádio Defensores del Chaco, in Paraguay, defeating Colombia’s Santa Fe 2-0 in a thrilling final.

Vic Albuquerque and Érika scored the decisive goals but as the players celebrated on the pitch, they also shared a protest video on their social media accounts, criticising the tournament’s conditions. “We won, but not everything is a party,” they said. “Last-minute venue changes, lack of publicity, poor pitches, risk of injury, having only 20 players, games every three days, empty stadiums, no warm-ups allowed on the pitch, inadequate infrastructure … it is disrespectful.”

In men’s football the Libertadores is the pinnacle of South American football. It represents the continent’s passion for the sport with sold-out stadiums and vociferous fans. In 2024, the men’s group stage began in April, with the final set for late November. All stages, except the final, are played over two legs, ensuring impressive crowds.

The women’s Libertadores, meanwhile, was held over 17 days in one country, a format that kept fans away from the games with empty stadiums. The problems for this year’s edition started early when, just 36 days before the tournament was due to start, Conmebol announced that it would move from Uruguay to Paraguay. Even worse, the tickets only went on sale the day before the first match.

Four stadiums were used: Estádio Arsenio Erico and Defensores del Chaco in Asunción, Estádio Carfem in Ypané, and Estádio Conmebol in Luque. The Carfem and Arsenio Erico stadiums were set to host 14 matches in just 10 days.

However, heavy rain during the last rounds of the group stage caused hour-long delays in several matches and with limited pitch recovery time, the quarter-final between Corinthians and Olimpia had to be moved to Ypané on the eve of the match, where the conditions were little better.

“It is unacceptable to play football on a pitch like this,” said the Corinthians midfielder Gabi Zanotti after the game. “We value this competition so much, we won the Brazilian championship to qualify for this tournament and the organisation does not treat it the way they should.”

Throughout the tournament players raised concerns about the poor pitch conditions, inadequate transportation and criticised the overall tournament structure. There has been some growth and the prize money has increased.

The 2024 Libertadores had a total prize money pot of $3.6m (£2.77m), with $2.05m going to the winners, a significant increase from 2019 when the combined prize money was as low as $285,000. The viewership has increased with over five million people tuning in to watch the 2023 final (data for the 2024 edition has yet to be released) but it still struggles to capture the continent’s attention.

Players and coaches also criticised the tournament’s rule allowing only 20 registered players. When goalkeeper Lelê was suspended for the semi-final, Corinthians had just one other option available. If Nicole, the backup, had been injured, a player from another position would have had to step in.

“I’m saddened by how little care Conmebol gives to its own tournament,” the Corinthians manager, Lucas Piccinato, told the Brazilian news website UOL after the final. “The format of the Libertadores does not meet the needs of women’s football. It wears us down with so many games in a short time and deprives us of the large audiences that the men’s Libertadores, played in two legs, can attract.”

The poor conditions extended beyond the pitch. Zanotti shared videos on social media of the buses used for transport for the quarter-finals, pointing out that the air conditioning was not working properly despite temperatures in Asunción reaching close to 30C. The images showed broken seats and uncomfortable players. “Libertadores – the continent’s main club competition,” she wrote.

The Libertadores Femenina has now been played 16 times but the players’ accounts show that there is so much to do to make it into a well-respected tournament. As the continent prepares to host its first women’s World Cup in 2027, Conmebol must take the players’ grievances seriously and ensure that this is not repeated.

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